• 3 hours ago
Asmongold Reacts to: Monster Hunter Wilds is a wake up call
by @LegendaryDrops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwNQ8M-2tJ4
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Transcript
00:00:00It's actually crazy how well this game is done.
00:00:02I'm like shocked.
00:00:03I think even like even my expectations,
00:00:05I didn't expect it to go this hard.
00:00:06400,000 people.
00:00:08That is fucking insane.
00:00:10Monster Hunter Wilds just bodied the entire industry.
00:00:138 million copies sold in less than three days.
00:00:16That's insane.
00:00:17I thought it was hard to sell a triple A game nowadays.
00:00:20I thought it was tough out on these streets.
00:00:23It's almost like if you make a good game, people buy it.
00:00:26Yeah, I've heard about that.
00:00:28You know, Monster Hunter as a series has only continued to
00:00:30grow, exponentially grow its audience in a way that very few
00:00:34in this industry understand.
00:00:35And I think very few can even try to replicate.
00:00:39I think this is what happened.
00:00:40Like the exact same thing that happened with Monster Hunter
00:00:43now is the same pattern that happened with Path of Exile 2
00:00:48and that previously happened with Elden Ring and that also
00:00:51happened with Baldur's Gate 3 is because like Larian leveled
00:00:55up and they did Divinity 2 Original Sin.
00:00:58So Divinity 2 Original Sin.
00:01:01Like they're building up and then finally you have like a
00:01:04game that's like so good.
00:01:06It's like this massive breakthrough hit.
00:01:09In franchise after franchise, studio after studio try to broaden
00:01:12their appeal, widen their audience only to alienate the core
00:01:16audience that they have.
00:01:18Saints Row, Diablo, Battlefield, Halo, Dragon Age.
00:01:21There's a long list of games that have completely left their
00:01:24audiences behind.
00:01:26Monster Hunter Wilds is a testament to just giving players
00:01:29what they want.
00:01:30Give them what they're looking for from your game.
00:01:34And while I have my criticisms of Capcom and you guys will
00:01:37hear that here in a little bit, they are one of the very few
00:01:40publishers in the industry that have continued to grow their
00:01:43franchises and continue to be heavyweight contenders.
00:01:47Yeah, they did the same thing with Street Fighter.
00:01:49I feel like Street Fighter now is more popular than it's been
00:01:52since probably the 90s.
00:01:53Like I think it's probably maybe Tekken might be bigger.
00:01:56I don't know.
00:01:57But in my opinion, I think Street Fighter is like very very
00:02:00iconic except Mega Man.
00:02:02Yeah, and I don't think Dragon's Dogma was handled in the right
00:02:05way, but yeah.
00:02:07That's tough to do.
00:02:09So today what I want to do is I want to talk about the wild
00:02:12success of Monster Hunter Wilds and I want to talk about the
00:02:16continued success and consistency of Capcom and how it's a
00:02:20lesson and an example that this industry desperately needs to
00:02:23follow.
00:02:24That's true.
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00:02:26yet another display because you guys have been enjoying the
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00:03:52Monster Hunter Wilds didn't just drop, it stomped the industry
00:03:55into the ground.
00:03:56Less than nine hours after it launched, it had already reached
00:03:59over a million concurrent players on Steam, peaking at 1.3
00:04:03concurrent players the very next day.
00:04:05All the while helping Steam to break over 40 million concurrent
00:04:09players. Apparently another really big reason for why Steam
00:04:13is growing is that I feel like Wukong really brought a lot of
00:04:17Chinese users into Steam.
00:04:20And I feel like the increasing amount of like AAA and like
00:04:23AAA quality games coming from China that are coming out on
00:04:26Steam really, really, like I think that's the main reason why
00:04:31you're seeing Steam growing so much is that it's becoming a
00:04:34big, because the thing is too, like I saw this, this is a crazy
00:04:38statistic.
00:04:39I don't know if I can, I forgot if I put this on my Twitter or
00:04:41not. Let me see if I can pull it up.
00:04:43This is a little bit of an aside, but I think it is kind of
00:04:45important.
00:04:46Look at this number of people using the internet.
00:04:49You have India, Africa.
00:04:51There's also China, right?
00:04:53China is a massive fucking place.
00:04:54It's got over like a billion people in it.
00:04:57So like when you have China being on the internet, that's a
00:05:00lot of fucking people.
00:05:06About, yeah.
00:05:09Oh, two days later, Capcom hit us with the numbers, 8 million
00:05:15copies sold in less than three days, becoming Capcom's most
00:05:19successful title to date.
00:05:20The call that a success would be underselling it.
00:05:22This game is a juggernaut.
00:05:23Heck, it's got games journalists out here writing guides instead
00:05:27of out-of-pocket criticism.
00:05:28So give it time.
00:05:29I'm sure we'll see some of that nonsense soon.
00:05:31Yeah, coming off of a crazy 2024, where both Palworld and
00:05:34Blackmuth Wukong smashed through 2 million concurrent players
00:05:37on Steam, a lot of people thought that those numbers were
00:05:40anomalies, flukes that wouldn't be repeated.
00:05:42We're used to seeing breakout successes topping out at around
00:05:45200 to 500,000 concurrent players on Steam, but this is a
00:05:49pattern now, a shift. Certain titles delivering very specific
00:05:52experiences are showing just how wide of a reach games can
00:05:56have and what AAA games can truly achieve.
00:05:58That said, Monster Hunter Wilds could have gone even harder
00:06:01if Capcom hadn't shot themselves in the foot with the game's
00:06:04optimization. Let's be real.
00:06:05Yeah, the optimization for the game.
00:06:07I mean, I have a really, really good computer, so I didn't feel
00:06:09this at all, but how many of you guys tried to play this game
00:06:12and you had computer issues with it? Because I think there
00:06:14were a lot of people that had this problem.
00:06:17You see how Capcom uses the word sold unlike Western Studios
00:06:20that use something else?
00:06:21Yeah, it's like instead of a game being sold in America, it
00:06:25has that many users because they have like all these subscription
00:06:29service programs that they try to say, oh, yeah, we had 1.5
00:06:33million users.
00:06:34Oh, yeah, you had this user.
00:06:36You mean that they logged into the game, they played it for
00:06:38five minutes and they stopped playing the game because it
00:06:40wasn't fun? Right.
00:06:42Okay.
00:06:42Yeah, let's put them on the list.
00:06:44Yeah, 5 million interactions.
00:06:46Yeah, exactly.
00:06:475 million people opened the store page for the game.
00:06:50This game wasn't struggling on mid-range hardware.
00:06:53It probably be sitting well over 2 million concurrent players
00:06:55right now.
00:06:56And honestly, the Steam reviews that are dragging the game
00:06:58for its performance are completely justified.
00:07:01There is no excuse for a flagship Capcom title to launch
00:07:04like this, not when it's one of the biggest IPs in gaming,
00:07:08not when it's one of the games that is supposed to be a milestone
00:07:11moment for this company.
00:07:12If you're charging full price, this game needs to run properly
00:07:15at launch.
00:07:16If you charge full price, people expect full service.
00:07:18It's that simple.
00:07:19The game being non-optimized and badly optimized is an issue
00:07:23that Dragon's Dogma 2 also had.
00:07:25And you know, it's again, like I remember when Monster Hunter
00:07:29World came out, people said the game was like majorly graphic
00:07:32intensive as well.
00:07:33I feel like comparatively, this game isn't that much better
00:07:37than Monster Hunter World.
00:07:38Like maybe this is like a hot take.
00:07:39I don't think that graphically this game is like really like,
00:07:42oh my God, it's so much better, right?
00:07:45But like it's good, right?
00:07:47It's good and it's pretty much the same thing and I would
00:07:50have expected better optimization.
00:07:52I think everybody should have expected better optimization.
00:07:56Simple as that.
00:07:57Capcom pulled the exact same thing last year.
00:07:59This is all for shareholders because their fiscal year ends
00:08:02March 31st and they want to just get the game out to appease
00:08:05their shareholders and beat their financial targets.
00:08:07And both the customer and the game are suffering as a result.
00:08:11I wish that these companies would wake up and realize that
00:08:13long-term profits outweigh immediate gains.
00:08:16And if Capcom, I think it's their engine that's the problem.
00:08:19It seems like that's the issue because like Dragon's Dogma 2
00:08:22got delayed a number of times and they didn't even have like
00:08:27the game.
00:08:27They said they're like, yeah, we're going to make this game
00:08:29and then like five years later, the game actually was made.
00:08:32So I think it's the engine.
00:08:34That's the problem.
00:08:35It seems it's also DRM.
00:08:36Yeah.
00:08:37I heard that Monster Hunter Wilds actually has two forms of
00:08:39DRM.
00:08:41They really don't want people duping Dekos.
00:08:44They really don't want that.
00:08:46What you get you got you got to do those hunts man.
00:08:48Properly optimize this game.
00:08:50They would be making a lot more money.
00:08:52I've had zero issues with the game personally, but I'm playing
00:08:55on a 4090.
00:08:55So my experience means nothing in this conversation.
00:08:58I feel for the players who physically cannot play the game
00:09:01and I feel even worse knowing that there are a lot of people
00:09:04that are out there that aren't even going to get the chance
00:09:06to experience how insanely good this game is because man,
00:09:10is this game good?
00:09:11I don't know what it is about Monster Hunter, but it taps
00:09:14into something primal like instinctive.
00:09:16It's like Capcom boiled down the essence of what makes video
00:09:19games fun and just delivered it straight into your bloodstream
00:09:23the same way that's exactly right.
00:09:26And so I think a couple of reasons why is that it's the
00:09:29quintessential boss fight simulator like you're just fighting
00:09:33bosses.
00:09:33That's also really good.
00:09:35It looks so clunky.
00:09:36It is clunky and I can see why you'd feel like it is.
00:09:39But if you play the game, I think that you'll get a feel
00:09:42for the clunkiness and learn to appreciate it.
00:09:45I know that's what I did.
00:09:46Maybe I'm wrong.
00:09:47Maybe you're different, but it definitely doesn't have the
00:09:49same fluidity and range of motion that something like Sekiro
00:09:52does, but I don't think that makes the game worse.
00:09:56So yeah, you get used to it.
00:09:57Yeah, and also the monsters function the same way, right?
00:10:00And so like you're fighting on the same even ground.
00:10:03But yeah, I think that's a big reason and also it's that you
00:10:07don't have to farm forever in order to get most rewards in
00:10:10the game like in order for me to get the Arkfeld set.
00:10:13I had to play an evening.
00:10:14I played an evening.
00:10:15I got my Arkfeld set and I think also the fact that you can
00:10:18do SOS fights and like hunts and like usually if you join
00:10:22a group unless you're like really really bad or the group
00:10:25is really really bad.
00:10:26You will probably have the hunt go very well and go very
00:10:29fast.
00:10:33I'd scrolling Mario just keeps you so you can get help and
00:10:35have just get done moving forward quickly Monster Hunter
00:10:38does that with bigger monsters crazier fights and higher
00:10:41stakes every step of the way.
00:10:43It's boss fight the video game.
00:10:45No filler.
00:10:46No waiting around just pure unfiltered gameplay.
00:10:49It's like no dinner straight to dessert.
00:10:51Every fight delivers every hunt adds to the spectacle and
00:10:54before you know it you're hooked.
00:10:56I'm sitting here.
00:10:57I'm writing this down and all I want to do is go back to
00:10:59playing more of the game.
00:11:00I put it Monster Hunter Wild so special is just how fluid
00:11:03everything is.
00:11:04Now the game does not waste your time.
00:11:06There's no point.
00:11:06It's true that Monster Hunter is like way more fluid that
00:11:11like this one is way more fluid than world.
00:11:14Like I think world had was like a little bit clunky who's
00:11:17more clunky like on the clunky scale.
00:11:19I'd say world is like a I don't know like a six or seven and
00:11:23this game is like a four or a three.
00:11:27Focus system improves it.
00:11:28I think that the thing that improves it is the amount of
00:11:32responsive defensive mechanisms.
00:11:35So things like offset and perfect Perry.
00:11:38Those are the things that I think really make it feel less
00:11:42clunky because you don't have to live with the consequences
00:11:45of your character being like in one angle or not.
00:11:48I think that's probably the best decision that they made.
00:11:50It's animation commitment, not clunkiness.
00:11:53I mean, I don't think there's really an image.
00:11:55There's a lot of ways to animation cancel in the game, but
00:11:57yeah, sure.
00:11:58It's downtime between fights.
00:12:00Everything about the way that you travel, take on quests and
00:12:03fight monsters has been designed around just keeping you
00:12:05engaged at all times.
00:12:07Pop-up camps mean you don't need to constantly return to
00:12:09town. Mounting lets you sharpen your weapon, heal, reapply
00:12:12buffs, and get right back into combat instead of awkwardly
00:12:15trying to run around.
00:12:16Hell, even when a monster runs away mid-fight, your mount will
00:12:20just automatically start tracking them, giving you enough
00:12:22breathing room to be able to manage your resources before
00:12:25jumping right back in.
00:12:26I think this is what has frustrated me so much lately with
00:12:29a lot of other modern games.
00:12:30There are so many of them that are going out of their way
00:12:32to slow you down. Force platforming sections in an action
00:12:35game, unskippable cutscenes with meaningless dialogue, pointless
00:12:39gear checks that block progression, busy.
00:12:42Yeah, that was a big issue.
00:12:43Is that like there's a lot of games that just waste your
00:12:46time arbitrarily. Like Avowed has this, for example, is that
00:12:50whenever you would fight monsters of a higher tier, there
00:12:53was like five tiers in the game, your weapons would just simply
00:12:56do half damage.
00:12:58So it was basically a mechanism to where like you had to go
00:13:02and like play the game in a very defined way, and I think
00:13:06that's kind of boring.
00:13:08...quests that make you run back and forth between NPCs, even
00:13:11Path of Exile 2, a game that I love, falls into that trap.
00:13:15Kill all these elites before you can progress.
00:13:17Somebody says Game of Smaves Monster Hunter used to mean
00:13:19grind, now you can get everything way too fast.
00:13:23I don't even agree with that.
00:13:26I really don't. Like anything I wanted in the base game in
00:13:29Monster Hunter World, like for example, like I just farmed
00:13:33it and I got it in like a matter of hours.
00:13:36Yeah, I really, yeah, I just, I don't, I guess like so my
00:13:40only frame of reference is Monster Hunter World.
00:13:43So if you're talking about like the much older games, then
00:13:46I just, I don't know, but for Monster Hunter World, I feel
00:13:49like it's about the same.
00:13:50Why?
00:13:51Just let me play the damn game, engage me, compel me to play.
00:13:55Monster Hunter doesn't do any of that.
00:13:56Every main story quest throws you straight into a new monster
00:13:59fight or gives you a meaningful reason to do something.
00:14:02Even the fetch quests they have in this game are actually
00:14:05rewarding.
00:14:05Go catch one fish, go trap one animal, and boom.
00:14:09I did the fish quest last night.
00:14:13You had to catch this fish, bro.
00:14:14I was, I was, I was, I was literally on the hook with this
00:14:17fish for like, I spent an hour and a half doing a quest
00:14:20because I didn't want to look it up.
00:14:23Now I got the fish.
00:14:25But man.
00:14:28There's a new fishing lure, cooking ingredients, or crafting
00:14:31materials. This game respects your time and gives you something
00:14:34in return. The other day I was getting ready to go to a hockey
00:14:37game and instinctively because it's coded into my gamer DNA
00:14:40now, I started a main story quest, figuring that it would
00:14:43just be another conversation, completely forgetting that this
00:14:46game has yet to have a quest like that. And two minutes later,
00:14:50right after a cutscene, bam, I'm in another monster fight. As
00:14:53I carve the beast that I just slain, another cutscene plays
00:14:56and I'm fighting another enemy. This game's pace is unrelenting.
00:15:00That pace and fluidity extends the combat, which feels 20
00:15:03times faster than any Monster Hunter game that I've played
00:15:06before. The new wound system, completely overpowered by the
00:15:09way, but it adds a whole other layer of strategy and it keeps
00:15:12the action moving non-stop combos.
00:15:15I think what's going to end up happening is that the wound
00:15:17system is going to just be recalibrated and when they do like
00:15:20the master ranks, I bet it's going to be a lot harder to get
00:15:23wounds in. That's what I'm kind of expecting.
00:15:25I mean, I could be wrong, but like that's kind of what I think
00:15:28is going to happen.
00:15:29Faster attacks flow better, movement is snappier.
00:15:32I'm maining longsword this time around and I have now three
00:15:35separate ways to keep up my spirit blade gauge. I can use my
00:15:38spirit blade combo, I can counter an attack, or I can just
00:15:41break a wound.
00:15:42It's just a constant non-stop action and I love it. And the
00:15:46level design.
00:15:46Oh my God, the level design.
00:15:48I can't tell you guys how many times I would get so frustrated
00:15:52with Monster Hunter World, fighting a wraithian, getting
00:15:55knocked down off the top of treetops onto a lower zone, then
00:15:59taking what felt like an eternity to find my way back to the
00:16:02monster. Wilds is leagues ahead of Monster Hunter World.
00:16:06It feels like they took all the best lessons that they learned
00:16:08from Rise with simpler layouts and just made a game that just
00:16:12feels so much more natural, so much more readable and easier
00:16:15to navigate.
00:16:16I'm memorizing areas faster, collecting materials more easily
00:16:20and using the map rather than actually fighting against it.
00:16:23For me, Monster Hunter Wilds is everything that's good about
00:16:26Monster Hunter polished to a mirror shine.
00:16:28It improves on every aspect of combat, the world design, quest
00:16:31design, and more. While I could criticize the story, I'm not
00:16:35going to because I don't give a shit.
00:16:37Like I feel like the story in the game doesn't really matter
00:16:39one way or another.
00:16:41Like it's kind of it's not great, but it doesn't really make
00:16:44a difference.
00:16:44It doesn't really matter.
00:16:47It's not what players are coming to this game for. The players
00:16:50know that Capcom knows that and we got what we got. With that
00:16:53said, there is this moment in the main story right after the
00:16:57credits roll and the game essentially takes you off the leash.
00:17:00I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but it's this obvious
00:17:03nod that basically says Hunter, it's time to hunt and it oddly
00:17:07got me right in the feels.
00:17:08I was kind of overwhelmed for a moment because I felt like I
00:17:12had only gotten a taste and this was the realization that this
00:17:15is the game that I've waited years for and it's finally here
00:17:18and it's time to play. Capcom didn't reinvent the wheel here.
00:17:22They didn't dilute the experience.
00:17:23They doubled down on what makes Monster Hunter great and they
00:17:26just gave players more of it and surprise surprise, it worked.
00:17:30God, I love it.
00:17:31I feel like the game definitely it maintained a lot of it's
00:17:34like identity and I think that if you watch a lot of speed
00:17:37runs, you're probably going to see a lot of the same types of
00:17:39gameplay, but yeah, now fixed performance.
00:17:42Yeah, I think so too.
00:17:43They gave us Gemma.
00:17:44Yeah, true.
00:17:45And I just want more monsters to hunt.
00:17:48That's the way I feel too.
00:17:49I want more stuff to do more monsters to hunt, etc.
00:17:52But I think that especially for like Monster Hunter players
00:17:55that kind of got into world, maybe a bit late.
00:17:58I think their frame of reference is going to be kind of distorted
00:18:00like mine is because world just has so much content that I
00:18:06never even finished it and I played it for 150 hours.
00:18:10So it's like if you compare that to Monster Hunter Wilds that
00:18:13just came out and you're looking at something that's had an
00:18:15expansion and like 50 different collab events, like 10 different
00:18:19patches, 20 different batches probably.
00:18:21So that's it.
00:18:22Yeah, it's years of content.
00:18:24That's what I'm really hoping for, right?
00:18:25And I that's why like, I don't know about you guys, but like
00:18:28have you guys tried to like make your gear as good as possible
00:18:31in Monster Hunter?
00:18:32So like when the new content comes out, you can play it because
00:18:34like that's what I've been doing.
00:18:36Of this game.
00:18:36I cannot stop playing it.
00:18:38Whoever wrote that line of the preservation of this ecosystem
00:18:42the guild hereby authorizes you to slay.
00:18:45Yeah, what a bar.
00:18:47It's straight out of anime.
00:18:48It gets me every single time.
00:18:50Baby, I'm weird, but it works on me.
00:18:52Now.
00:18:53I don't want to sit here and just glaze the game entirely because
00:18:56there are some things that I have some issues with.
00:18:58There's definitely a lack of build diversity in the end game.
00:19:00I'm upset that Capcom basically boiled it down to two armor sets
00:19:04and already in weapons more than anything else, but I know that
00:19:07over time the game is going to get more content.
00:19:10Capcom is pretty relentless when it comes to adding content to
00:19:12Monster Hunter games, but yeah, we'll see honest man.
00:19:15I'm just having too much fun to actually care because all I wanted
00:19:18was more Monster Hunter and they did that.
00:19:20That's exactly what I got.
00:19:22Yeah, and I think there's a lesson in that.
00:19:24I think that that's something that when I start to contrast this
00:19:27game with the rest of the industry, you know, they're finding
00:19:30success because they're just staying true to what they are simple
00:19:33as that when I look around at some of these storied franchises
00:19:36Assassin's Creed is a really good example.
00:19:38A lot of a lot of studios try to broaden their audience and they
00:19:42don't do it in a way that's healthy.
00:19:44They basically end up watering down the experience for the existing
00:19:48players while trying to attract a group of players that would
00:19:51never be the audience to begin with.
00:19:53That's kind of the issue of this.
00:19:55It used to be a stealth action game.
00:19:57Now, it's a stealth RPG random loot mechanics and things like that
00:20:02things that have nothing to do with the core experience that players
00:20:05expect from that franchise and what they're coming for and you know,
00:20:09how many times have you guys heard over the last few years?
00:20:12We're going back to our roots with this game.
00:20:14They've been saying that with Assassin's Creed.
00:20:16They said that with Mirage because they made it a more compact.
00:20:19They say that with every single game.
00:20:21The only reason why they're saying that is to capitalize on nostalgia.
00:20:26That's the only actual reason why.
00:20:30There's no other reason.
00:20:31It's just to get nostalgia.
00:20:33Backstory and now they're saying it was Shadows because of the stealth mechanics.
00:20:37Why did you guys leave your roots in the first place?
00:20:40That's what made you successful.
00:20:42That's why Capcom is finding success.
00:20:45They left them because they thought they could find a wider audience
00:20:48that way.
00:20:49They thought that they could make more money.
00:20:50They thought by exploring genres outside of their own including
00:20:54elements of pop culture injecting social messaging or by tailoring
00:20:58the game to audiences that don't play their game.
00:21:01They could make more money.
00:21:02This is what WoW did in Wrath is that in Wrath of the Lich King towards
00:21:06the end of the expansion Blizzard started making an MMO for people
00:21:11that don't like MMOs.
00:21:13And I think it was one of the biggest mistakes they made and and I
00:21:17feel like it just kind of got worse over time.
00:21:20And like now like WoW is like it's such a known entity that you know,
00:21:25it is literally it is what it is.
00:21:27But like back then like you had everybody was playing the same raid
00:21:31you had multiple different difficulties and like they basically tried
00:21:34to just keep broadening the scope of the amount of people that would
00:21:37be interested in playing the game.
00:21:39And I think the result of that is that eventually the scope got too
00:21:44big and it was like it was a game made for nobody and I think that's
00:21:48what happens with a lot of these games is they keep broadening their
00:21:51audience until there's no one who's actually interested in them.
00:21:56But Monster Hunter proves that's not necessary.
00:21:59Monster Hunter has quietly become one of the fastest growing franchises
00:22:03in the entire industry year after year iteration after iteration.
00:22:06It is steadily expanded its audience not through massive overhauls
00:22:10or desperate trend chasing but through small refinements and organic
00:22:13growth.
00:22:14The series is always what was really insane about that is the fact
00:22:17that Monster Hunter like Monster Hunter World, which is the game
00:22:21that came out the last like PC release that came out before this
00:22:24one sold a million copies in the three months leading up to this
00:22:30game.
00:22:31And when I saw that I thought to myself, holy shit.
00:22:36This game is going to go crazy.
00:22:38The fact that you had a release that came out almost a decade ago
00:22:42that's getting juiced to over a million copy sales rise.
00:22:47No, I said a PC release rise originally came out on the Nintendo
00:22:51Switch.
00:22:52I'm talking about world.
00:22:55In beloved in Japan, but for a long time it really struggled to find
00:22:59footing in the West that all changed with Monster Hunter World back
00:23:02in 2018 a game that served as the franchise's true breaking point
00:23:06pushing it into the mainstream, but it did it while it retained the
00:23:10core of what made Monster Hunter.
00:23:12Well Monster Hunter if you look at most modern versions of legacy
00:23:15franchises today, the vast majority of them barely resemble what
00:23:18they once were so many franchises have strayed so far from their
00:23:22roots that they feel completely disconnected from what made them
00:23:25successful in the first place.
00:23:27The ones that have adapted successfully Dark Souls, Doom, Zelda,
00:23:30Mario, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy.
00:23:32They've a good point with Doom.
00:23:33Yeah, that game definitely did evolve and it's pretty much the
00:23:36same game.
00:23:37Yeah, it's exactly what you like.
00:23:39If you were to go back to like 1998 and ask somebody what would
00:23:43you imagine Doom looking like in 20 years?
00:23:45They would show you Doom Dark Ages.
00:23:48Yeah.
00:23:49Evolved, but they've never abandoned their identity.
00:23:52Dark Souls refined its RPG mechanics and combat and world design
00:23:56multiple times through different titles before Elden Ring perfected
00:23:59the formula.
00:24:00Doom brought back its run-and-gun intensity without becoming a
00:24:03mindless shooter or softening its themes.
00:24:06Resident Evil revitalized itself with Resident Evil 7 and Resident
00:24:10Evil 2 remake balancing horror and action in a way that felt true
00:24:13to the franchise.
00:24:14The key to all of these, they changed just enough to stay fresh,
00:24:17but never so... It's crazy to see like this is the way the game
00:24:19used to be, right?
00:24:21This is where it started from and it's not totally different because
00:24:25the funny thing is that even if you just started playing Monster
00:24:28Hunter.
00:24:29Well, actually this is Tigrex.
00:24:31This is in Monster Hunter World.
00:24:33It's not in Wilds, but like you have the mega potions, you have
00:24:37the little clock there and you have your sharpness gauge.
00:24:41You have your health and your stamina.
00:24:45Yeah.
00:24:48Much that they lost their essence. Monster Hunter is doing the exact
00:24:51same thing. For years, Monster Hunter was a cult phenomenon in
00:24:54Japan thriving on handhelds like PSP and Nintendo DS.
00:24:57The portability of these systems made it a perfect fit.
00:24:59What's really crazy about Monster Hunter 2 is that girls play the
00:25:03game.
00:25:05That's crazy.
00:25:06Wow.
00:25:08What?
00:25:10Yeah, I know.
00:25:13Girls love this game?
00:25:15Yeah, like what the fuck?
00:25:19Structure quick, challenging hunts that you could play on the go
00:25:22with your friends.
00:25:23Net cafes and social gaming events are still incredibly popular
00:25:26there.
00:25:26So Monster Hunter fits really comfortably into that culture.
00:25:29In Japan, Monster Hunter releases have been treated like holidays
00:25:33with some companies even recognizing a launch day as an unofficial
00:25:36time off event.
00:25:37It's always been huge there, but it always had remained a regional
00:25:40powerhouse, never really quite breaking through into the international
00:25:43market.
00:25:43Yeah, the Western market just wasn't ready to embrace its slow,
00:25:47deliberate combat, hardcore mechanics, and sometimes brutal learning
00:25:50curve. But Capcom played the long game.
00:25:52Unlike a lot of other studios that would have tried to fix the game
00:25:55by completely changing it, Capcom just refined and expanded on what
00:25:58already worked.
00:25:59They took inspiration from other Capcom titles like Street Fighter
00:26:02and Devil May Cry, injecting faster, more responsive combat mechanics
00:26:06while keeping the weight and commitment of combat intact.
00:26:09The game remained tactical and deliberate, but over time it became
00:26:12smoother, more fluid, and more intuitive.
00:26:14A lot of the early mod-
00:26:15Yeah, I think a big difference is that like they never really went
00:26:19and so like, and this is going to be kind of a personal opinion,
00:26:22but I actually really liked Dark Souls 1's combat better than Dark
00:26:26Souls 3 after playing both of the games for hundreds of hours.
00:26:30I like the more slow, methodical, like slower paced combat, and
00:26:35I feel like they never really Dark Souls 3'd Monster Hunter.
00:26:41They never really did.
00:26:42I heard Rise was kind of closer to that, but like it's
00:26:46definitely not anywhere near that.
00:26:48How about Dark Souls 2? Bad game.
00:26:50And anyway, so back to good games, I think really like kind of
00:26:55Elden Ring was like that little middle ground where like you can
00:26:59play certain types of combat builds that are like really fast, but
00:27:03not all of them are like that.
00:27:06Dark Souls 2 power stance though?
00:27:08Yeah.
00:27:08Yeah, there were a couple of good ideas that were in Dark Souls 2
00:27:10for sure.
00:27:11There was like a hundred bad ones too.
00:27:13Monster Hunter titles lacked proper explanations for mechanics.
00:27:16Players were thrown into a world and just expected to figure it
00:27:19out, and it was part of the appeal for a lot of the diehard fans,
00:27:22but for new players, it was intimidating as hell, especially
00:27:25with how clunky the combat felt. Over time, Capcom gradually-
00:27:28It's also like how punishing the game is too, because if you
00:27:32watch a speedrun of Monster Hunter, a lot of people that watch
00:27:36it think, oh, that's cool.
00:27:37But people don't understand the amount of animation reading and
00:27:41like the amount of like pre-planning a person has to do in order
00:27:45to be very good at it.
00:27:47Like knowing where to stand, like it's not impressive to know
00:27:51what the monster's going- like what the monster's doing. Really
00:27:55good speedrunners know what the monster is going to do.
00:27:58And where instead of knowing like where to attack, they know
00:28:01where to pre-attack.
00:28:04And I see that a lot.
00:28:07Introduced better onboarding, clear UI elements, and actual
00:28:10explanations for how things work.
00:28:12I don't view this as dumbing the game down, so to say.
00:28:15They just made it easier for players to understand and made the
00:28:18game more comfortable to play. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was
00:28:21a breakout hit on PSP, introducing deeper combat mechanics and
00:28:24a stronger multiplayer experience that made it a must-have in
00:28:27Japan. Then came Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which experimented
00:28:30with underwater combat and expanded onto home consoles. Monster
00:28:34Hunter 4 pushed mobility- Is that the gunlance?
00:28:38Water combat. Oh my god, it is. Expanded onto home consoles.
00:28:42Damn.
00:28:46I think that that's another really cool thing that Monster
00:28:49Hunter has is that because they're using all the same monsters,
00:28:53there's like an element of nostalgia where it's like, okay.
00:28:56Well, what is the- like they showed like Xenogor or like Tigrex.
00:29:00What are they going to look like in the new game?
00:29:04Monster Hunter 4 pushed mobility even further with climbing
00:29:07mechanics and aerial attacks, making fights feel more dynamic.
00:29:11Then Monster Hunter Generations introduced hunter styles and
00:29:13arts, allowing players to customize their play styles in ways
00:29:16they'd never even seen before. Each step built on the last,
00:29:19fine-tuning the formula and gradually bringing in more players
00:29:22into the fold. Then came Monster Hunter World, the game where
00:29:25everything just- It's crazy how good the graphics for this game
00:29:28are.
00:29:30Like for being a game that came out such a long time ago.
00:29:34Like I don't even think that Wilds looks that much better.
00:29:38It's- this is really, really good.
00:29:42Just clicked into place.
00:29:43It was the perfect balance of staying true to the franchise's
00:29:45roots while also creating an experience that was more inviting
00:29:49to a global audience. The game ditched the handheld limitations
00:29:52and pushed for the AAA scale environments and it refined its
00:29:55multiplayer accessibility. The result? Well, it's the best-selling
00:29:59Monster Hunter game of all time, so far. Yeah, see that's the
00:30:02thing, is that like if you look at the way this happened.
00:30:06See how like the game kind of started growing in like 2018 and
00:30:11then 2019, like all of the new games just keep getting better.
00:30:16And like look at the amount of people that bought Iceborne that
00:30:19played World.
00:30:21Like if you're at 20 to 14, that's basically like over half,
00:30:26almost 75% of the people, like more like 65%, bought the expansion
00:30:32to the game.
00:30:34That is an insane comeback ratio.
00:30:37Crazy ratio to have.
00:30:40COVID effect?
00:30:41No, Iceborne came out in 2019.
00:30:45So that wasn't COVID.
00:30:4844.8 million copies sold across all editions.
00:30:51Yeah, a complete transformation for the series. World didn't just
00:30:55succeed, it changed the franchise forever.
00:30:57It acted as a force multiplier where every subsequent release after
00:31:01the sale of Monster Hunter World exploded. Monster Hunter Stories,
00:31:05which sold 600,000 copies in 2016.
00:31:08Well, its sequel in 2021 hit over 2 million in sales. A spinoff like
00:31:12Monster Hunter Rise hit almost 17 million in sales.
00:31:16Just like how Elden Ring became the most successful Souls game by
00:31:18staying consistent, Wilds is one of the wildest audiences the series
00:31:22has ever seen because they understand what people love about Monster.
00:31:25Look at the quality of this game.
00:31:28Like the graphical quality.
00:31:31This is really fucking impressive.
00:31:33It looks insanely good.
00:31:38About Monster Hunter and they keep delivering on that.
00:31:41That's why this series has continued to grow.
00:31:43It makes concessions to playability, sure, but only in ways that
00:31:46enhance engagement, never at the cost of depth.
00:31:48One of the biggest hurdles for Monster Hunter that kept it from being
00:31:51a true mainstream hit for years was just sheer inconvenience.
00:31:54For new players, the game just felt too stiff, too demanding, and
00:31:57too punishing. Things like awkwardly trying to dodge around an enemy
00:32:00so that you can sharpen your weapon mid-fight, unintuitive movement,
00:32:03and terrible control.
00:32:04Yeah, this is Wilds.
00:32:06No, I legitimately thought this was World.
00:32:09I'm a fucking retard.
00:32:11I don't know.
00:32:11Where is this in the game?
00:32:13I've never been here.
00:32:14I thought this was the top of the jungle area.
00:32:16Yeah, I've never been.
00:32:17It's the top of the tree.
00:32:18I never went to the top of the tree.
00:32:20You can go to the top of the tree?
00:32:22I didn't know that.
00:32:24Controls and clunky multiplayer restrictions that just pushed a lot
00:32:27of players and potential fans away, including myself.
00:32:30I tried the game for the first time many years ago back on Nintendo
00:32:33DS, and I was filtered by a Kulu Yaku egg-carrying quest.
00:32:37While many veterans have thrived on these mechanics, the general
00:32:40audience has only experienced frustration. With Wilds, Capcom just
00:32:43smoothed out the edges.
00:32:44Combat still remains deliberate and positional, but players have
00:32:47a little bit more flexibility.
00:32:48You still need to know when to commit to an attack, but you have
00:32:51better tools to adapt. Running away to sharpen your weapon?
00:32:54Well, that's been streamlined.
00:32:55Now you can do that while you're mounted. Multiplayer, no need for
00:32:57awkward cutscene restrictions before being able to invite a friend
00:33:01to a hunt. Every iteration of the franchise has made small, incremental
00:33:04quality-of-life improvements, all without losing what makes Monster
00:33:07Hunter, Monster Hunter.
00:33:09And that's why Wilds is doing so well.
00:33:10It's the result of decades of refinement and not trying to desperately
00:33:14try to invent the wheel.
00:33:15It respects its history, its fans, and more importantly, its own
00:33:18identity. Now, while I've seen some people complaining that Monster
00:33:21Hunter Wilds is leaning too hard in the casual direction, that it's
00:33:24too easy in comparison to some of the other titles.
00:33:27What was the hardest boss when Monster Hunter World came out?
00:33:30Like, what was the hardest challenge the game had? Like, on release
00:33:35of the game? Nergigante? Just base Nergigante?
00:33:41Not tempered Elder Dragons, but not Arc-tempered, just base-tempered?
00:33:48Like, purple, not orange? Kirin is pretty insane.
00:33:52Yeah, I did Kirin Arc-tempered.
00:33:54That was annoying.
00:33:55Honestly, I would say that base-tempered Nergigante, or like Elder
00:34:02Dragon? I don't know.
00:34:08I mean, like, I feel like maybe, like, if that difficulty is like
00:34:12a 9, then I would say maybe tempered Gore Magdala is like an 8,
00:34:19maybe. I think Gore Magdala is pretty hard.
00:34:23Am I crazy?
00:34:24Like, I think so. World definitely had harder encounters. Some of
00:34:28that just comes from, well, being experienced and familiar with
00:34:31the game, understanding its mechanics and combat in a way that
00:34:34very few people do. Friends of mine that are playing the game for
00:34:37the first time, they're getting filtered.
00:34:39They're having a hard time.
00:34:40They're SOS flaring any chance that they get, and trying to get
00:34:43as much assistance as they can, but they're having a great time
00:34:46playing it. This is another component is that you have, this is
00:34:50another big issue that I think that like Elden Ring did this the
00:34:53right way too, where Elden Ring didn't make the game for people
00:34:57that beat Sekiro seven times.
00:35:00They didn't make the game for people that played mods of Dark Souls
00:35:033 to make the game even harder than it was at a baseline.
00:35:06They made the game for a large audience and good players will
00:35:11find new ways to challenge themselves by doing speedruns.
00:35:15So like sweats ruin gaming?
00:35:16Yeah, exactly. Sweats do ruin gaming.
00:35:18And I feel like if you design a game around sweats, that's all
00:35:21you're going to have playing it.
00:35:22That's what happened with WoW.
00:35:25Is it like, in my opinion, retail WoW is designed entirely for
00:35:28sweats. It's not designed for average, normal, everyday players.
00:35:32These are people that have been historically critical of the
00:35:35series and never wanted to touch it, that are playing it for the
00:35:38first time and are loving it.
00:35:39That's exactly what you want to see.
00:35:41You know, one of the things that I was thinking about, because
00:35:43I was talking to one of my friends, because I'm like, think
00:35:46about how big of an impact it has, being a player that's played
00:35:49this franchise in the past, and you understand how to counteract
00:35:52certain elements.
00:35:53You understand how to stack certain items like Mighty Pill and
00:35:58Demon Drug and Demon Powder and things like that.
00:36:02A lot of other players aren't going to know those things, and
00:36:05that gives you a massive, a very massive advantage in a lot of
00:36:09these fights.
00:36:10Yeah, like I felt this way with Elden Ring, especially now that
00:36:13I've played it before.
00:36:14Like, I mean, when the DLC came out and I like just made a new
00:36:17build, you know, you just face roll the whole game, right?
00:36:20Like, especially like base Elden Ring.
00:36:23So like, I think people really, especially people that have
00:36:27played other games like this in the past, I think that they
00:36:30really downplay the amount of, the amount of value that being
00:36:35like, being somebody who's played the game before and understanding
00:36:39that, the amount of value that brings. Because like, there's
00:36:43all these things that you never have to wonder, you never have
00:36:46to be sure about.
00:36:46So like, you basically have already played the game before.
00:36:49Yeah, you have experience, right?
00:36:50Yeah, I've always told people like, you know, game knowledge
00:36:53is the strongest secondary stat you can have.
00:36:55And I think with this game, it's the same as it was in WoW, is
00:36:58that that's definitely true.
00:37:00Well, I know that veterans and purists are going to have their
00:37:02differences.
00:37:03There's going to be some people that are definitely going to
00:37:05criticize what my opinion is on this, but I think that Monster
00:37:08Hunter, its core experience remains intact in a way that very
00:37:11few franchises can pull off.
00:37:12They're giving players more options rather than just taking
00:37:16things away from them.
00:37:17And I think that's what really makes the biggest difference
00:37:19here, because the players have a choice. Palico's too strong?
00:37:23Leave it at home. Mounting cheapens combat? Don't mount while
00:37:26you're in combat. The wound system's overpowered.
00:37:29But well, yes.
00:37:31And it's also keep in mind that speedrunners and people that
00:37:35are really good at the game aren't utilizing these tools.
00:37:39So if you want a bigger challenge and you want a more
00:37:43comprehensive challenge, then you can adjust that yourself.
00:37:47Just don't use the tools given to you as fucking retarded?
00:37:51Well, no, it's really not.
00:37:53I mean, I think that if you want to, and also it's not efficient,
00:37:59like it's not efficient to get on your mount and like ride
00:38:02away from the monster just to get a heal.
00:38:06Like you don't want to do that.
00:38:09It does add a lot more flexibility and makes combat a heck of
00:38:12a lot more dynamic and much more forgiving in a lot of cases.
00:38:17When you see some of these veteran players using it, they
00:38:19look like, they look like Virgil from Devil May Cry 5.
00:38:23That has to feel good.
00:38:25It doesn't. You can't tell me that doesn't feel good.
00:38:29They just give you more tools and it's your choice to engage
00:38:32with it.
00:38:33And I think that's the essence of how some of these long-standing
00:38:35franchises can continue to find success. More tools, less
00:38:39friction, let the players define their experience.
00:38:43Never forget what you are.
00:38:45Those are the keys here.
00:38:47You know, when I look at a lot of other franchises, yeah, no
00:38:49summoning is a great example, right?
00:38:51A lot of people in Elden Ring don't use summons because they
00:38:54feel like it cheapens the fight.
00:38:56So it's like if you feel like something cheapens the fight,
00:38:58just don't you don't use it.
00:39:00And I think that like in in Elden Ring, there's like 50 examples
00:39:03of that, of things that make it way easier that a lot of players
00:39:06choose not to use.
00:39:08Like mimic tiers, summons, you know, like different types of
00:39:12like really big buffs, etc.
00:39:15Yeah, so it's quite common.
00:39:17Here that they've forgotten and they don't care.
00:39:20They don't trust the players to give them more tools, shield.
00:39:23They don't think that they can handle those kind of things
00:39:25instead of letting players define their experience.
00:39:27They want to define that experience for them, limit their
00:39:30expression, dictate how they play games.
00:39:34That's not right.
00:39:35Yeah.
00:39:35No, well, I'm sure I'm going to have some people disagree with
00:39:38me because I know that veterans of any franchise are going to
00:39:40have their own shade of criticism.
00:39:42It's not uncommon for us players to want to hearken back to
00:39:45the old days.
00:39:46Don't recite to me the ancient texts.
00:39:48I was there when they were written, but the heart of Monster
00:39:51Hunter is very much still intact.
00:39:54The same cannot be said for a lot of other games in this
00:39:57industry. Too many studios don't just change.
00:39:59They lose their identity entirely, warping their-
00:40:02Well, the problem with Monster Hunter's combat originally is
00:40:05that it was really punishing and it felt bad to play if you
00:40:08were bad at it.
00:40:10Like, basically the game felt bad to play and it felt good to
00:40:14play if you were good at it, but bad to play if you were bad
00:40:16at it. Now, I feel like the game feels good to play if you're
00:40:19bad at it and better to play if you're good at it.
00:40:24Skill issue?
00:40:24Well, it is a skill issue, right?
00:40:26That's the thing.
00:40:27But like, if you make- if you insult the player's skill and
00:40:31you make the player not enjoy playing the game, then they're
00:40:35not going to play the game.
00:40:37So, like, really at the end of the day, a skill issue is secondary
00:40:42to enjoying the game.
00:40:44And if you're enjoying the game, that's what really matters.
00:40:48So, casualized?
00:40:49Well, it's not casualized.
00:40:52I don't think that's an accurate way of explaining it.
00:40:56Franchises into something almost unrecognizable, either
00:40:59through trend-chasing, misguided ideology, or a growing
00:41:02obsession with dictating how players experience games.
00:41:06Look at Diablo, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Dragon Age,
00:41:09Battlefield.
00:41:10These aren't franchises that evolved.
00:41:11These are franchises that compromised themselves.
00:41:14And every time- 1.3k?
00:41:16What the fuck?
00:41:27That's crazy.
00:41:32And they want to fix the damage.
00:41:33They say the same thing.
00:41:35We're going back to our roots.
00:41:36But the problem is they don't even know what that means anymore.
00:41:39They've spent so much time stripping away what's unique about
00:41:43their games from their foundation that they have nothing to go
00:41:46back to. And honestly, I think the Diablo is probably the best
00:41:49example of this because not only is Diablo what actually started
00:41:52this channel, but it's a franchise that I grew up on. Diablo
00:41:552 wasn't just a great game.
00:41:57It was a definitive game.
00:41:58It had some of the hardest-hitting narratives and cutscenes
00:42:01in the industry, insane build diversity, and challenging,
00:42:04rewarding gameplay that gave players full control over their
00:42:07experience. Diablo 3, by comparison, was practically Gauntlet
00:42:11Arcade. And while I love Gauntlet, that's not what Diablo was
00:42:15supposed to be. Tell me, why is it that for so many-
00:42:17I feel like Diablo 2, I mean, like- I mean, people still play
00:42:22Diablo 2. I feel like Diablo 3, that game's basically- I mean,
00:42:26the game was dead even when it was out, right?
00:42:28And so like now, it's just like super dead.
00:42:31Many studios reaching a wider audience is somehow translated
00:42:36into social-political messaging, child-proofing their narratives,
00:42:40shoehorning mechanics in that do not belong, turning action
00:42:43games into RPGs and immersive RPGs into action games, or just
00:42:47straight-up dumbing down the experience because they don't think
00:42:51their audience is smart enough to handle it. Like, sure, Diablo
00:42:543 sold well, so did Diablo 4, but when you actually look at how
00:42:57the fan base feels, it's almost entirely criticism.
00:43:00They're not delivering what players want, and proof of that is
00:43:03in their low engagement.
00:43:05Notice how Blizzard is dead silent on the sales of their latest
00:43:08expansion.
00:43:09That's not normal, historically.
00:43:11I think everybody knows why.
00:43:15Everybody knows why.
00:43:19In a way, I feel bad, but I really kind of don't.
00:43:22Yeah, nice sub.
00:43:24Yeah, why? Because I think the game hasn't sold as many copies,
00:43:29and I don't think it's as popular as it used to be.
00:43:32That's really the reason.
00:43:34I just don't think so.
00:43:36It seems like a lot of people have moved past playing the game,
00:43:39etc.
00:43:40And so, like, yeah, I don't think people really care.
00:43:44Like, the game kind of lost a lot of its edge.
00:43:50Was Diablo 4 ever popular?
00:43:53Yeah, I think Diablo 4 is a good game, but it just
00:43:58doesn't really have...
00:44:00It doesn't have the amount of depth to it that makes a game
00:44:03like that fun.
00:44:06I can't really explain it, because it's like, Diablo 2, I felt
00:44:09like, at least the part of it that I played, which was very
00:44:12minimal, it felt like it was in between Diablo 4 and PoE 2,
00:44:18or PoE 1, really.
00:44:21They've had no problem shouting out their victories, but they
00:44:24know it's a little bit too simple.
00:44:25But I think Diablo 4 is a good game.
00:44:30It is a good game.
00:44:31It's a great game for casual players, and it's a great ARPG
00:44:34for casual, like, average, you know, gamer dads.
00:44:40I think PoE is way better, but that's not it.
00:44:49Oh, what is this?
00:44:52How did you do this?
00:44:54How did we go from, we will never be slaves to this?
00:45:02Arthas, my son, to this?
00:45:07This was so fucking lame, bro.
00:45:09It's just so lame.
00:45:13I just, I don't know what to say.
00:45:17I thought, yeah, we will always be fairies, slave to DEI?
00:45:21I don't even know.
00:45:22Like, it's just so cringe, man.
00:45:25Soy?
00:45:25Wow, it is.
00:45:26It's totally soy.
00:45:29And the characters don't even look that good either.
00:45:32He actually mattered to a game about friendship and rainbows,
00:45:36quick matching players with no interaction, bloated grinds,
00:45:39and shallow engagement loops that feel more like a second
00:45:42job than actual progression.
00:45:44Call of Duty keeps layering on more and more surface-level
00:45:47mechanics, yet somehow loses precise, skill-driven gunplay.
00:45:52The thing that actually made this the king of FPS games.
00:45:55All the while, they're stuffing a mature-themed game with music,
00:45:58Hollywood, and Ninja Turtle crossovers.
00:46:01Battlefield 2042 launched with no meaningful squad play?
00:46:04I think this, to be fair, right?
00:46:07I think this is cool.
00:46:09This is definitely cool, but the only time that it's not cool
00:46:13is when it's coming at the expense of the actual game, you
00:46:16know? Quad play or a class system.
00:46:19The two things that made Battlefield what it was, Dragon Age
00:46:22abandoned deep, player-driven role-playing in favor of cinematic,
00:46:26streamlined storytelling, and progressive social messaging.
00:46:29They stripped out any of the strategic combat, tactical depth,
00:46:32and character progression, and just made it a generic action
00:46:35game. For what? All this comes down to this.
00:46:38It's so easy, too.
00:46:39Like, Dragon Age is so easy.
00:46:42Like, every spell that you cast gives you immunity iframes.
00:46:47So, like, anytime a boss is going to do a really big hit, all
00:46:51you have to do is wait to cast a spell, and then as soon as
00:46:54they do the hit, you just cast the spell, and then you don't
00:46:58take damage.
00:46:59I'm serious.
00:47:00Like, it's actually that easy. Game issue, trust in identity.
00:47:03Studios just don't trust players to engage with their games
00:47:06as they are. And you have other iframes, too. They think that players
00:47:08are incapable of appreciating a challenge, depth, or nuance,
00:47:12so they try to force on these unnecessary changes to fix things
00:47:16that aren't broken. And the result is a game that just doesn't
00:47:19appeal to anyone. Too watered down for longtime fans, and too
00:47:22unfocused for new players.
00:47:24That's exactly it.
00:47:26There are so many of these franchises now that try to...
00:47:31They try to do both, and they just don't really... they don't
00:47:34maintain their identity.
00:47:35So you play it like a Souls-like?
00:47:37Yeah, kind of, right?
00:47:38But it's just best game for journalists?
00:47:41Yeah, I guess so.
00:47:43That's basically what happened to Rise, by the way.
00:47:45Yeah, well, I mean, I feel like that's the reason why, I mean,
00:47:48World, like, you know, Capcom didn't do Return to Rise.
00:47:52They did Return to World, and I think there's a reason for that.
00:47:56Appeal to a new audience of non-gamers.
00:47:58Yeah.
00:47:59Yeah, we're gonna get this mythical audience of people that
00:48:02have no interest in playing video games to play our video game.
00:48:05All we need to do is add this type of social messaging, and then
00:48:08put yellow paint on everything, and then all the stupid people
00:48:12that watch TV shows will play our video game.
00:48:15Yeah, welcome to AAA game development in America.
00:48:19Of course, it doesn't help that the media just keeps egging this
00:48:21all on. Players complain about a lack of interactivity in Avowed
00:48:24and how bare-bones the experience feels. PC Gamer goes out and
00:48:28writes an article dismissing their criticism entirely, hyperbolically
00:48:31reframing the players' concerns so they can smugly write,
00:48:34I don't care about being able to kill everyone. You don't have
00:48:37to be Skyrim to be good?
00:48:38Yeah, but you should at least be Oblivion though, right?
00:48:41Like, maybe you should at least be Oblivion.
00:48:44I don't know.
00:48:46...one and steal the mayor's pants in an RPG like Avowed, and
00:48:49I'm tired of pretending like it's mandatory.
00:48:52So now, instead of developers taking valuable feedback to improve
00:48:55their game, they're being encouraged to challenge themselves
00:48:57less and lower the bar, all in the name of progress.
00:49:00And of course, this extends to Monster Hunter 2.
00:49:03I just started playing Monster Hunter Wilds, and this health
00:49:05bar mod might be the first one I install. Over 80,000 Monster
00:49:09Hunter Wilds. That's fine.
00:49:12If you want to install a health bar mod, that's completely
00:49:15okay. It's your game, and you can play it the way you want
00:49:19to play it.
00:49:20That's your, it's your game. Like, that's fine.
00:49:23You don't have to mod.
00:49:24Yeah, you don't have to mod.
00:49:26I don't think that you need a health bar.
00:49:28I think that the boss behaves and acts in a way that's very
00:49:32indicative of its current health.
00:49:35But if you want to do that, then you can do that.
00:49:39It destroys the essence of the game, then that's your right
00:49:42to do that because it's your game.
00:49:43That's it.
00:49:44That's fine.
00:49:44It's for the most part.
00:49:46It's a single-player game, and if people want to mod a
00:49:49single-player game, go ahead.
00:49:50Like, I just, it ruins the game.
00:49:53Well, here's how it works. For some people, it ruins the game.
00:49:57For other people, it doesn't. If you think it ruins the game
00:50:01for you, don't use it.
00:50:03There are a million, there is an Elden Ring mod that turns
00:50:06you into an Apache helicopter that shoots nuclear bombs that
00:50:10kills everything in one hit.
00:50:12I would say that ruins the game.
00:50:15The way I solve that problem is I just do not download that
00:50:19mod onto my computer.
00:50:22It's a great solution.
00:50:28...players want to see health bars.
00:50:30Ah, yes, 80,000 out of the 8 million players that bought
00:50:33the game.
00:50:34Let's celebrate the literal 1% and ignore the 99 others
00:50:39that love the game as it is.
00:50:41Well, I think that that's, I mean, if you were to ask a lot
00:50:44of new players, I think that you would get like people that
00:50:47don't play the game.
00:50:48Adding in health bars would attract in new players, but it's
00:50:52not really, the thing is that I think adding in health bars
00:50:56would make sense.
00:50:57I remember I talked about this with like Lost Ark Guardians.
00:51:00But like with Monster Hunter, it doesn't really make sense
00:51:03and it doesn't really, you don't need to have health bars
00:51:05in Monster Hunter because of the different ways that the monsters
00:51:08respond to gameplay.
00:51:12So it's just not necessary.
00:51:15Dude's talking about you pull their player.
00:51:16Yeah, and I think also make it a toggle default off.
00:51:23I mean if they did do that, I would prefer that they just
00:51:27leave it up to being a mod.
00:51:29Because I think that when you put something in the game, you
00:51:33do have people that are going to always use it.
00:51:37I think it would be better for it to just leave it.
00:51:39Let people mod it in though.
00:51:40I think it's fine if you want to mod it in.
00:51:43I don't think it needs to be a default setting.
00:51:45Yeah, leave it as a mod.
00:51:47And I think if you want to use it as a mod, it's completely
00:51:50okay, and I'm non-judgmental about it completely.
00:51:54Exactly how franchises get chipped away at.
00:51:56It starts as a helpful mod, then becomes a demand to make
00:51:59it official.
00:52:00And then eventually the entire philosophy of a game changes
00:52:04because certain people can't be bothered to learn how to play
00:52:07it. And I'll give you another example.
00:52:10I wish that there were numbers in Dragon's Dogma.
00:52:15I would rather have numbers in the game.
00:52:19That's it.
00:52:19I want numbers in the game.
00:52:22Now, like that's you saying.
00:52:26Yeah, I know.
00:52:26I know this is my opinion, but it's in Monster Hunter.
00:52:29I like that.
00:52:31So if there's a damage mod for the monsters, then I'd be fine
00:52:34with that.
00:52:35Yeah, sure.
00:52:36But like I play it without the mod and that's okay.
00:52:40Why the gaming industry keeps failing to grow its audiences
00:52:42properly because they're not building on what makes their
00:52:44games great.
00:52:45They're tearing them down.
00:52:46And then they wonder why Monster Hunter, a game that stays
00:52:49true to its identity, without selling them all.
00:52:51I know that I'm not alone in feeling that some of our favorite
00:52:53franchises have just compromised too much over the years.
00:52:56They've changed far too much.
00:52:58Yes, you have to adapt.
00:52:59You got to be flexible.
00:53:00And sometimes that means losing some of your unique flavoring
00:53:04to be a little bit more palatable to a wider audience.
00:53:07But I think that in a lot of cases, these games have just
00:53:10sacrificed too much.
00:53:11They've lost too much.
00:53:13And as a result, they can't go back.
00:53:16For example, the Monster Hunter.
00:53:18So like the addition to a health bar in Monster Hunter Wilds.
00:53:22The reason why that's like such an issue is that wanting that
00:53:29indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the game
00:53:33works. And I think that's really whenever you have problems.
00:53:37When you take away nuances and like special features that your
00:53:42game has in order to appeal to a wide audience. Explain.
00:53:47Well, a monster like, for example, monsters limp whenever they're
00:53:51low enough health in order to be captured.
00:53:54They fly away at certain different health intervals as well.
00:53:57And they also, you know, can show that they've taken damage based
00:54:03off of the amount of parts that are broken.
00:54:05And just like, you know, does it still have the tail? Stuff like
00:54:09that. They are drooling.
00:54:10Yeah.
00:54:10And then they're also, they get exhausted, tired.
00:54:13Yeah, exactly.
00:54:13Part breaks.
00:54:14Yeah.
00:54:14And so there's a lot of examples of things like that.
00:54:17So whenever you say that you want a health bar for Monster Hunter,
00:54:20what you're saying is that I don't really understand the way the
00:54:23game works.
00:54:25And so that's very different than a lot of other features that
00:54:28can just, in some cases, make the game feel better to play, like
00:54:32the defensive mechanisms in the game.
00:54:35The skull on the mini-map makes it easy.
00:54:37Well, it also, the Palico tells you that it's going to happen too.
00:54:40Monster Hunter is one of the very few franchises in this industry
00:54:46that I can point at that isn't a Nintendo title and say, anyone
00:54:49of any age can enjoy this game.
00:54:51And they've made it that way.
00:54:53But it's still the exact same game, at least from my perspective,
00:54:57that it's always been over the years.
00:54:58And I think a lot of that is just coming down to the fact of how
00:55:02the game plays.
00:55:02It's so focused on gameplay.
00:55:04It's like the only thing that these guys care about.
00:55:06You can tell that's the case because... Imagine only caring
00:55:10about gameplay. The story.
00:55:12Nobody cares. Other side mechanics. Graphics, nobody cares. Story,
00:55:16nobody cares. Crafting mechanics. Items, literally nobody cares.
00:55:21It's the same items that were in the game in the PSP.
00:55:23Nobody cares.
00:55:24So basically, but now the gameplay is really good.
00:55:29That's the only thing that matters.
00:55:33It's just a vehicle to get you to go right back into combat again
00:55:36because that's where this game shines.
00:55:38And if you're doing that the most out of anything else,
00:55:40well, all you're going to do is just want to play more of the game
00:55:44the more you play it.
00:55:45And that's how it ends up working out.
00:55:47This right here.
00:55:48At least that's my experience.
00:55:50Yep.
00:55:50I think a lot of games have gotten away from that.
00:55:52You know, while I was playing Monster Hunter, I was sitting back
00:55:54and thinking about it and I'm like, you know, most of the things
00:55:57that we complain about games today don't actually have anything
00:56:01to do with the actual playing of the game. How it feels.
00:56:05How the controls are and things of that nature.
00:56:08It's always performance or maybe it's some type of social political
00:56:11messaging or whatever.
00:56:13It might be or how much gameplay is the bottom line.
00:56:17If a game has good gameplay, the game will be successful.
00:56:21If a game has bad gameplay, the game will not be successful.
00:56:25That is the defining characteristic and the only true thing that
00:56:29matters.
00:56:32They've moved away from certain things that we enjoyed in the game
00:56:36before and remove certain mechanics and stuff like that.
00:56:38But with Monster Hunter, there's just such a focus on how the game
00:56:42plays that I think that's the real key to its success more than
00:56:47anything else.
00:56:48If you got optimization.
00:56:49Yeah, but that's separate.
00:56:50That's not gameplay.
00:56:50How does that get lost?
00:56:53Where does that get lost along the way?
00:56:55Where does the playability?
00:56:56The way that it got lost is people like Neil Druckmann trying to
00:57:00be Hideo Kojima and making movies into, sorry, making video games
00:57:05into movies.
00:57:06And then you have a entire industry of theater kids that are now
00:57:11old enough to try to make video games and they do their best and
00:57:15they try so hard.
00:57:16But in the end it doesn't matter and they make shitty content and
00:57:20bad games that are boring and that that's really what happened.
00:57:25That's the reason.
00:57:27Is that you have a lot of these people that have tried to oh now
00:57:31it's the graphics.
00:57:32It's representation.
00:57:34It's all of these like secondary like it's systems and it's like
00:57:39a replayability and actually replayability can be gameplay, right?
00:57:43Depending right like battle passes.
00:57:45And so there have become all of these abstract reasons and like
00:57:50abstract like noise that video games have that ultimately doesn't
00:57:56fucking matter.
00:57:58Like none of these things fucking matter and I think the best
00:58:01example of this is Assassin's Creed Shadows with the hideout
00:58:06system.
00:58:06Oh, you can build a hideout and you can customize the dogs in the
00:58:10hideout.
00:58:19What game is this again?
00:58:21Is this Assassin's Creed or Assassin's Crossing?
00:58:24What's going on?
00:58:28You don't have to?
00:58:29Exactly.
00:58:30Exactly.
00:58:31That's what I would tell them but they did.
00:58:36It's ridiculous.
00:58:38Same as in Hogwarts Legacy.
00:58:40Yes, Hogwarts Legacy the the hideout like special area was totally
00:58:44unnecessary.
00:58:47And I think that these games they at you see what my point is though
00:58:50is like they're adding in like these features and functions that
00:58:54really nobody gives a fuck about this doesn't make the game better.
00:58:58It doesn't add anything into the game.
00:59:00It's not really actual real replay value.
00:59:02It's just bullshit.
00:59:06Will be an enjoyability of a game become a secondary trait of the
00:59:11game.
00:59:12How does that how does that get lost?
00:59:14I just don't understand it.
00:59:15The only thing that I can think about is talent leaving because over
00:59:19the years talent leaves they go somewhere else.
00:59:21They work in another studio.
00:59:22They go start their own studio or whatever might be maybe there's
00:59:25that's the big issue is that you have talent leave that made the
00:59:29good games and then the people that replace them make bad games.
00:59:34Like there's a term for this.
00:59:35It's called brain drain and I feel like we've had a few studios that
00:59:40have had a very very bad case of brain drain.
00:59:47Officer whatever and then I started thinking about it further and
00:59:50these Eastern Studios.
00:59:51They keep their employees.
00:59:54Yeah, I don't know if you guys notice this but like Japan specifically
00:59:57these people are stuck.
00:59:59No, no, like I absolutely noticed that the same guys that were in the
01:00:04credits for Super Mario World are the guys now that are running Nintendo
01:00:09like Shigeru Miyamoto to me.
01:00:12That is so cool.
01:00:14That's awesome.
01:00:18Their jobs.
01:00:19They don't go anywhere else and if they do go somewhere else, it's big
01:00:23news.
01:00:23It's headline news.
01:00:24I remember when the guy that was part of Capcom.
01:00:27He was a little brand name on top of my head.
01:00:30He was the combat director for Devil May Cry 5 and he went to go to work
01:00:34at Square Enix and he worked on Final Fantasy 16, which had great
01:00:38colors on news headlines like paper headlines in Tokyo.
01:00:42It's a big deal for them people leaving their job and going somewhere
01:00:45else is a big when the guy that made dragons dogma left Capcom it's
01:00:49you know, that was a big deal too.
01:00:53Because like I like for me it was very disappointing.
01:00:56I was holding out hope that they would probably make a dragons dogma
01:00:59to expansion that would like be like Dark Arisen that would just make
01:01:02the entire game a million times better.
01:01:04They didn't do that very unfortunate and there they haven't done that
01:01:08yet and like with its uno leaving.
01:01:10I feel like the chances of that happening of like it's who knows the
01:01:14same guy still in my crying.
01:01:15Wait, they have the same name.
01:01:17I don't know Kojima.
01:01:18Yeah, Kojima is a great example, right?
01:01:21Kojima starting his own company was forever in the news.
01:01:24Yeah, and also like the fact that it worked.
01:01:29He'll there's probably something to that because that's that's not
01:01:33the same in the West.
01:01:34I'll tell you that right now.
01:01:35I might have to look into that.
01:01:37Anyway, I need to play more Monster Hunter.
01:01:40I'm getting impatient.
01:01:41Can't believe I took the time to make a video.
01:01:43How dare you guys make me do this?
01:01:45I hope you guys enjoyed it.
01:01:46You better.
01:01:48Thanks for watching man.
01:01:49Follow the channel, subscribe the channel, share the channel, like
01:01:53video, comment, follow Twitch.
01:01:56See you guys next time.
01:01:57Stay cool.
01:01:57Stay righteous.
01:01:57Stay safe.
01:01:58Blue Protocol is Capcom.
01:02:01I don't think it was.
01:02:02I think Capcom might have published it, but like that was it.
01:02:06I mean, I don't think it was really made really by Capcom, but yeah,
01:02:10no, I totally agree.
01:02:11I think Monster Hunter is definitely putting a lot of the these other
01:02:14games, especially like Western games, putting them on notice.
01:02:18Putting them on notice, man.
01:02:20It is and I'm very, very, very glad to see it.
01:02:23Like as I said, I've played a lot of Monster Hunter.
01:02:27I have really, really, really enjoyed the game.